The Dynamic Phenomenon of Art in Heidegger's The Origin of the Work of Art

Aili Bresnahan

Abstract

This paper makes the claim that in ?The Origin of the Work of Art,? Heidegger treats art as a primary phenomenon through which truth as unhiddenness is revealed at the locus of the work of art. Essays by Heidegger commentators John Bruin and Abraham Mansbach are rejected as inaccurate or insupportable because they do not recognize that for Heidegger art is an originating phenomenon; it is not a mode of representation (Bruin), nor is the agency of ?art? due to the ?work of art? (Mansbach).